Tied Up in Knots

Chapter 8 - Friday, October 7th 7:00pm

I rolled over and tried to quiet the incessant beeping of my alarm.

"Crap," I mumbled as my phone clattered to the floor. I hauled it up by its charging cord and hit the stop button. Silencing my alarm revealed the assortment of notifications I'd accumulated in the few hours I'd been asleep. Social media, the news, texts.

Texts from Sebastian.

>I did too. You left in a hurry though

From the minute after I'd texted him the night before. The next one read:

>I hope I didn't do something wrong

My stomach heaved. Of course he'd think that. He'd made it obvious that he was nervous before we'd had sex the night before. Then we did, and I bolted, like an absolute asshole. The next text appeared to come in about 20 minutes later.

>If you don't want to see me anymore, that's alright. Just let me know

I laughed to myself. It seemed like I wasn't the only one who'd spiraled last night after our date.

Sleeping on it solidified some things in my mind. Firstly, I definitely wanted to see Sebastian again. Secondly, even though things were moving fast, that didn't make it bad? Just because I'd never actually felt anything this intensely for anyone this quickly didn't make it wrong. It was just new. I knew I could figure it out.

I grabbed my phone to respond.

>Sorry I fell asleep. I do want to see you again. Tell me where and when and I'll be there

So fucking desperate, I thought to myself. But the text was sent, so I let it be. Getting out of bed was my least favorite part of the day, but I forced myself. I had errands to run, laundry to do, food to buy, grades to put in and I would need most of the day to get everything done. Showering the night before saved me a few minutes this morning. After throwing on some clothes, I grabbed my laundry and grocery list and headed out.

Sebastian didn't text me until my clothes were in the machine at the laundromat. I'd indulged in a little bit of mid-day daydreaming, hypnotized by the spinning clothes in the drum, when my phone dinged.

>You have no idea how happy I was to see that. I have a really full week, are you busy Friday night?

Friday night I was absolutely free. And if I hadn't been, I would have cleared my schedule. Waiting nearly a week to see Sebastian was not ideal, but I could understand being busy. This week was fairly light for me - lessons already planned, nothing major to grade. Which would unfortunately leave me a lot of time to ruminate on our last date and anticipate the next, but that was just the reality of the situation.

>Definitely free Friday

I didn't have to wait long this time for his reply.

>I'll text you later in the week for the where and when then

---

Where and when happened to be Friday night, 7pm at a mini golf spot in Tribeca. I'd spent the entire week doing my best not to become consumed by thoughts of Sebastian, and I had done a fairly good job of it. We'd texted here and there, but it was obvious that Sebastian was not a good texter. The conversational flow just wasn't there. Sometimes he'd reply hours later, sometimes immediately. I chalked it up to having a packed week, which he'd told me, so I tried not to take it personally. It was nice to have a little space for myself to consider how things were going without Sebastian's presence there to overwhelm me. Since we weren't talking constantly, it was easy to push him out of my head, sometimes for up to hours at a time. Well, maybe not easy, but easier.